Texas fire fighters asked to review safety training

By Jayme Fraser | Houston Chronicle

Published 12:53 pm, Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Photo: Cindeka Nealy

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(File Photo) Midland Fire Department personnel familiarize themselves with the equipment on the new Station 8 fire engine at the MFD training grounds in this June 2011 file photo. Cindeka Nealy/Reporter-Telegram less

(File Photo) Midland Fire Department personnel familiarize themselves with the equipment on the new Station 8 fire engine at the MFD training grounds in this June 2011 file photo. Cindeka ... more

Photo: Cindeka Nealy

Texas fire fighters asked to review safety training

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Fire departments across Texas will stand down Friday from routine duties to review basic safety training and standard operating procedures.

Although the request from Texas State Fire Marshal’s office is not an order, Chris Barron, executive director of the State Firemen’s and Fire Marshal’s Association of Texas, which is assisting with the stand-down call, said he has received numerous confirmations after emailing more than 10,000 firefighters Tuesday.

”There are a lot of very basic safety messages we forget about because we’re caught in the daily operations of medical and routine calls,” Barron said. ”Up until this year, we’ve seen a decline in line-of-duty deaths.”

So far this year, 18 Texas firefighters have died in the line of duty, three times as many as the annual average. Eleven of those were killed it the West, Texas, fertilizer plant explosion in April.

The stand-down call comes as Houston prepares to memorialize four of its firefighters who died in a roof collapse at the Southwest Inn fire last Friday, the deadliest incident in the department’s 118-year history. Thirteen other firefighters were injured in the blaze. Two remain hospitalized, including one in critical condition.

An estimated 5,000 firefighters from across Texas and the nation are expected to join their Houston colleagues for a public memorial service at Reliant Stadium Wednesday to honor Robert Bebee, Matthew Renaud, Anne Sullivan and Robert Garner, the four who died in last Friday’s five-alarm blaze along the Southwest Freeway.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo from the Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston will open the ceremony with prayers, and Houston Mayor Annise Parker, Fire Chief Terry Garrison and Jeff Caynon, president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, will address the crowd. The event will close with a final alarm bell ceremony and bag pipe music. The memorial will begin with an 8 a.m. procession of equipment and firefighters to the stadium.

The families will hold private funerals Thursday and Friday.

It remains unclear how the fire started at the restaurant attached to the Southwest Inn, which now lies in a pile of charred clay tiles and wood in the 5800 block of the Southwest Freeway.

Ed Arthur, deputy chief of Houston Fire Department’s Arson Division, said at a news conference Tuesday that the multi-agency investigative team so far has focused its attention on the area above the kitchen in the restaurant. Witnesses have said the fire started in the restaurant and spread to the motel.

Arthur confirmed reports that the roof of the adjoined buildings had multiple layers, possibly the result of reconstruction and repair work.

”That may have been a contributing factor,” he said.

He declined to answer many specific questions, such as whether there were sprinklers in the building or whether grease build-up could have contributed to the five-alarm blaze, saying they will spend at least another week collecting data from the scene. Arthur said it would take months to interpret that information before each agency releases its report.

The fire is being investigated by the department’s arson division; the Texas Rangers; the Texas Fire Marshal’s Office; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; and the Houston Police Department homicide division. The fire department will also conduct an internal review focused on decisions made at the scene.

Arthur said more than 100 witnesses have been interviewed to date, including more than 60 firefighters who responded that day. He encouraged anyone with information about the fire, including photos or videos, to contact the arson division at (713) 247-8900.

Barron said Friday’s fire gave him and other leaders in the state firefighting community the final push to speak out about the increase in on-duty deaths, which is still higher than usual when not counting those who died in the West fertilizer plant explosion.

He blamed the state legislature, in part, for refusing to fully appropriate the funds it annually collects to support volunteer departments, which protect more than 70 percent of the state.

Line-of-duty deaths have decreased since 2001, but Barron said many still occur because the command structure breaks down or firefighters skip basic risk analyses before beginning fire suppression tactics.

”We’ve got to send out a safety message. We need to do it now,” Barron said. ”We’ve got to take a stand to end line of duty deaths.”